“A New Skills Agenda for Europe. Supporting upskilling and reskilling to enable digitalisation and sustainability”. This is the title of the VideoTalk held on 10 September by the Institute for Competitiveness, with guest speaker Despina Spanou, Head of Cabinet of the Vice President for ‘Promoting our European Way of Life’, European Commission.
The VideoTalk was opened with a speech by I-Com President Stefano da Empoli. The main speaker, Despina Spanou, then took the floor. There followed an open debate moderated by Mattia Ceracchi, I-Com Head of EU Affairs.
Bringing together EU institution representatives, research and business organisations, trade and consumer associations and other relevant stakeholders, the VideoTalk provided an opportunity to discuss the European Skills Agenda, presented by the European Commission on 1 July, which highlights the importance of skills to achieve sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience for all. The strategy sets ambitious and quantitative objectives for upskilling (improving existing skills) and reskilling (training in new ones) to be achieved within the next 5 years, placing a particular emphasis on the need to invest in skills as a key priority to foster the EU’s recovery and prepare European workers and citizens for the green transition and digital transformation.
What are the key issues to address that may allow the EU to achieve the Skills Agenda’s goals? Are there any specific differences amongst Member States hindering the achievement of those objectives? Are the EU-budget programmes the right instrument to support training in skills for the workforce and for consumers, and to modernise education across the EU? How could the education network provide a stronger support in the development of skills needed for the digital and ecological transition? These and other questions emerged from the discussion.
